Roberto Cipresso

Storyline

Roberto Cipresso, native from Bassano del Grappa, starts his winemaking career in 1987 in Montalcino, where he settles and starts working for some well known wine productors like Case Basse, Poggio Antico and Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona. He extends his activity and collaborates with prestigious companies in Tuscany and across the most important regions in the territory thanks to his successful personal achievements. In 1999 Roberto Cipresso founded Winemaking, a group of agronomic and oenologic consultancy that today counts with a team of selected technicians that work for more than thirty companies throughout the Italian territory.

His carrier counts with collaborations with foreigner companies such as the prestigious Achaval-Ferrer Winery - in the past - and Matervini in Argentina, and the project Bueno Bellavista in Brasil. Recently he started a new collaboration with Vinos de la Luz in Argentina and Spain, fulfilling his dream of working with the Tempranillo variety.

He is the founder of La Fiorita winery, located in the heart of Montalcino; he's the owner of a a vineyard of three hectares, one of which is grown in Brunello vines, near his Resort of Poggio al Sole. He is also the founder of the Winecircus project, a wine cellar and laboratory. Thanks to the particular vines that he counts with and thanks to the experimental cellar, Winecircus is dedicated to research and to the different aspects of the vine activity in collaboration with the Universities of Padova, Venezia, Palermo,Torino, Pisa and Udine. Now Winecircus is set in a big new cellar at the entrance of Montalcino. He works in Winecircus with his brother Gianfranco and his friend Santiago Achaval.

Roberto Cipresso participates frequently as speaker in technical – scientific conventions nationwide and internationally. In 2000, during Jubilee, he created a special Cuvée for the Pope John Paul II. One of the most important recognitions received during his professional carrier is as Best Italian Oenologist during the “Wine Oscar 2006”. In 2008 Men’s Health Magazine voted Roberto Cipresso “Man Of The Year” in food category.

His three books, “Il Romanzo del Vino”, “Vinosofia” and “Vineide”, written in collaboration with Giovanni Negri, were published respectively in September 27th 2006, October 12th 2008 and in September 23rd 2009. In 2009 Wine&Spirits declares Bodega Achaval Ferrer “Best Wine Cellar of The World”.In April 2010 he met Italian Republic President, Giorgio Napolitano, and was asked by “Città Del Vino” to develop a special wine for the 150th Anniversary of Italian Unification. In 2011 Robert Parker, patron of The Wine Advocate, awards Cipresso’s five wines with one 99/100, three 98/100 and one 97/100. During 2012 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2006 La Fiorita, 95/100 Wine Spectator rating, is listed as one of the Best 50 Wines in Italy during the Best Italian Wines Awards 2012 and received the Gold Medal at the “Merano Wine Festival 2012”. Roberto Cipresso ranks in the “Top 10 Wine Spectator 2012” with his Finca Bella Vista 2010, Bodega Achaval-Ferrer in Mendoza.

The 21st January 2013, Roberto Cipresso perform at the School of Enology in Conegliano Veneto the Lectio Magistralis entitled:"The vine and wine in 25 years of experience." During the the same year, on June 20th, at the Master of Food and Wine managed by the University of Venice "Ca' Foscari" he did a lecture entitled: "The old and the new world of wine." The 3rd October 2013, at the Embassy of Argentina in Monte Carlo, Roberto did a lecture about his own work experience in the wine-growing of Mendoza.

July 30, 2014, Roberto became a member of the Scietific Committee of Ente Vini - Enoteca Italiana.

January 19, 2015 - in collaboration with University of Udine and prof. Roberto Zironi, at the wine school of Conegliano Veneto - Roberto Cipresso did a "Lectio Magistralis" entitled: "History of Vine and Wine".

During 2015, Wine Spectator honors Brunello di Montalcino 2010 La Fiorita with 95/100 rating; at Merano Wine Festival 2015 Roberto take part, with 10 of his best wines, in the prestigious selection of Cult Oenologist.

In 2016, Roberto, with his brother Gianfranco, founds the project Cipresso 43: wines from native vines produced along the same Parallel, but in front of two different seas - Adriatico e Tirrenico -.

My wines

The Winecircus project consist in the winery / workshop of Roberto Cipresso, born from its founder to conduct experimentation and research to support the work of agronomic and oenological advice conducted in Winemaking. There is the necessity to study the development and potentiality about many different oenological instances, from time to time to the attention of the winemaker, in a space that is completely free from the constraints imposed by the names and specifications of the territories of production or the properties which you must necessarily compare in consulting. The research is focused on the study of the terroir and the identification of the types or blends of different grapes which can offer the most faithful interpretation.

Initially the headquarters of the Winecircus was an old barn refurbished and converted into the winery; recently, after a phase oftransitionin the heartof the Montalcinocountryside nearCastelgiocondo, the entire structure has been moved to a newand definitive place, at the entrance of Montalcino, equipped with the most advanced and sophisticated tools.

The work in the winery is managed by the winemaker David Bari, as usual under the supervision of Roberto Cipresso; in the winery, specially during the harvest, many interns come from the most prestigious university, college and the most famous Italian and foreign school of winemaking, in partnership with Winecircus.

The result of the research and the development carried at the Winecircus allowed to create basically three wines: Pigreco, La Quadratura and Eureka. The first two are considered "Red Wines of Italy", and they were born like a tribute to the adventure of mixing and contamination, respectively from grapes from international varieties of vineyard and Italian varieties of grapes grown in different terroirs. The third, Eureka, is product by the grapes from a single terroir selected among others - and kept intact and untouched – choosed for particular qualities of character, personality and expressive potential.

In 2016, Roberto, with his brother Gianfranco, founds in Winecircus the project Parallelo 43: wines from native vines produced along the same Parallel, but in front of two different seas - Adriatico e Tirrenico -.

ruby red-garnet colour; the nose offers intense spicy sensations, and notes like
the fig and the raisin; the feel on the palate is elegant, delicately salt and in keeping with the
nose. The persistence is good and mineral.

intense ruby red colour, nose of blueberry and blackberry jam blended with
sensations of tobacco. The palate takes volume during the tasting, and terminates in a slightlyaggressive, presenting a sweet tannin.

MY BRUNELLO

The strong and recognizable terroir, through an exceptional performer that only the Sangiovese can be for Montalcino, has always been the impulse that until now has led the production of Brunello by La Fiorita. He worked on the discovering of parcels of land characterized by a particular richness of soil and climatic profile in order to make vineyards based on its own production philosophy, with special selections of clones of Sangiovese planted at high density. Now he's the owner of a a vineyard of three hectares, one of which is grown in Brunello vines, near his Resort of Poggio al Sole.

Prologue

"One day, drinking wine, I cried. It was the winter of 1999, I sat with two friends in a bistro in Paris. I was not sad, nor particularly excited. We chatted about wine and life, between the great dark wooden shelves that served as walls of the tiny room, and trying to defend ourselves from the draft of cold that crept through the door.

We ordered a bottle, that was brought and opened. It fell on me to smell, taste and listen to the wine. I did and I was immediately struck by a strange, disturbing, profound sensation. I did it again, and did not want to believe it. At the third tasting, I was filled with emotion and cried. I cried at length, smiling. Since then I've always thought that someday I would write something, to try to explain why."

Capitoli

1 - New York - Paris (the Window display)Where we are told of the two great modern Babels of wine, how they are alike and different, full of music and sparkling window displays. Where we are told of the importance of temperature in life and in the vines, as once the wine was only a rough food, and just as a hundred status symbols are not worth a Giulio Gambelli.

2 - Melbourne - Shiraz The TasteWhere the story is about how the most bright and easy wine from the new world bear the name of an ancient and difficult Persian city, how the taste of man evolves before a glass of wine and how the pleasure of drinking and the pleasure love not infrequently resemble each other until almost indistinguishable.

3 - Lisbona - Capo d'Africa (The Transportation)Where we are told of how man transport wine and how wine is carried to humans.

4 - Mendoza - Friuli (The Fatigue)Where we learn about how the wine is often the result of a life far from generous, the son of a nature which is not good, and of how man and wine have been tamed thanks to a damn spider.

5 - Bassano to and from (The Mirror)Where we are told of how the Campanile is a true evil, how at one point all you want to do is leaving and the next minute all you want is to return, how this affects man and how the wine does the same.

6 - Interval Amarcanda-Camarcanda (The Earth)Where at half way we fly with a balloon in the company of two strange Passepartout, and like in a comic travel around the World in Eighty lands of wine, descover the train of Hitler and the mystery of the caves of Al Qaeda, we learn that Sicily is the mother of Australia and met Dr. Merlot, the tennis player Chardonnay and the cousins Cabernet.

7 - Chicago - Monterey (Terroir - the new world)Where we are told of Prohibition and Transgression of a Russian that wrote "Il Tacchino", how a simple mistake by a lawyer from Puglia result in a landing at the airport of the former Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles each year.

8 - Montalcino - Bordeaux (Terroir - the Aristocracy)Where we are told of castles and nobility, low blows and grand cru, scrambles and assemblies, negotiators and bareback horses. This is where we are told of wines from Italy and France, on the discovery of the magic mountain.

9 - Langhe - Burgundy (Terroir - the field of miracles)Where we are told of the field of miracles, the state of grace and of his king; how the fruit of that garden is as light as silk and can sublimate into emotion, harmony of silence and a few notes, delicate balance between the earth, man and the sky.

10 - www.winecircus.it (the Future, where the book continues)Where we are told of the dream of an old station and its' wagons on a journey to the Land of No one, the next challenge of the terroiristes and why you should drink wine not to forget but to understand and remember.

Vinosofia - Roberto Cipresso, Giovanni Negri

Prologue

The first glass

"The clerk of the hotel La Perla snorted the muggy heat of July. Unbearable. He heard a noise down the stairs and turned lazily. Here comes another. The American went down slowly, handed him the key of 205 and stood before him. He was a boy, a little more than twenty. Convinced that the job imposed precautions he took to observing. Since it was not for him to appease the fantasies of the guests distracted and curious, he repeated what they wanted to hear without enthusiasm. Another one who knows nothing of bulls, bullfight, blood and wine. Another idiot attracted here by the popular fury that each year alights Pamplona, to witness the spectacle of the great tradition. He did not tolerate them and repeated the same words, wrapped in a story of fears, dreams and greed. He took the key, sighed announcing the scenario. For the feria of San Fermin turn left, after hundred meters continue straight ahead, there you will begin to meet people but beware, you do not know the bulls, the momentum of their race, the popular madness that turns this into an event sacred and pagan, life and death .. in fact it can also be dangerous. This is what these assholes wanted to hear, and what he told them. He added: be careful, in the fury, there are people dying there, ending trampled, who no longer understands what is happening. Watch out for the bulls, be careful in the crowd, be careful with the wine ... He always had to repeat it, but the other had already left. And who cares, I cannot take the part of his parents. The American did not know Pamplona, nor Spain. That yellow heat, the intensely spoken words, those dark and sudden shadows had pleasantly surprised him. He passed the spire of a large church, turned and threw the eye into a courtyard filled with a surreal silence, suddenly broken by the cry of a child who seemed to die and instead was playing, playing .. it was just a game. Continued. Suddenly. Towards him came rushing black haired men, light-hearted and tanned, and women, fluttering, which suggested firm legs and thick thighs underneath their full skirts. He straightened himself. He liked it, he liked the noisy Spain. He walked right into the sun, to the center of the noise of the crowd, the center of everything ... As if there could be a center of something, in this small town. But what on earth was destined to happen? Currently there was nothing going on but the white and red. White, white as chalk on the houses, white like the sun not yellow anymore but blinding white like all the clothes of the people celebrating, women and men in the Lord's Day and to celebrate the Saint, tourists in white trousers and shirts. Red, as the red geraniums that flooded every balcony, red as the scarves around the necks and around the waist of the people celebrating, humanity ready to celebrate, the colour of wine and blood that would soon be colouring the streets bright red. The boy shuddered. He loved it, God he loved it. The American knew that something was about to happen. The air was tense, electric, took to stomach and head. The men, young and old, silent or already screaming crowded along the sidewalks, preparing for the violent ritual. Some snappy, virile, with proud eyes towards their woman or contemptuous looks toward their friends. Others mature, swollen, desirous of renewed youth. Others still drunk with love and wine, wavering, unsteady on their legs, to demonstrate their strength. White and red too, clean and dirty, happy and desperate, all together waiting for the beast. And finally the beast arrived. He, too, when he arrived, he found himself there in the middle, in this whirlwind of love and death, holiness and blasphemy, of perfume and vomiting. The bulls were running madly, driven by howls of derision and violence. Symbols of power, humiliated and despised animal before being killed, occupied the whole street chased by men who went after them, avoiding, overcoming, throwing their hips, grotesque screaming. And women, even more monstrous bulls and men, deformed faces and mouths shouting vulgar words, aggressive, abandoned in a collective ritual liberating and cruel ... I did not know their language but I sensed the deep sense watching those hips shook, the hands that went up to heaven, lips and eyes wide with desire, pleasure, fear. It was ecstatic. Overwhelming. Drunken crowd, life, violence, love. He threw himself on the small bottle of leather that someone offered him, drank and redrank, drank while before his eyes in a flurry of hooves, horns, legs, screaming already ran the first blood on the road, or perhaps the first wine, or maybe it was all the blood and wine ... He was dripping, dripping with sweat and drunk when he arrived at the plaza de toros. And still drinking he admired the Old Rite. Death, it was for the bulls to die. Mercilessly. But respecting the beast, his blood, his wine. He was finally dragged out, pushed by the crowd that already came back to invade the narrow streets of the village. He wandered among restaurants, local shops. He ate with his hands, grabbed meat and vegetables, drank and redrank. Danced, danced until dawn and then was seized by fury. Should he. Now he had to, had to. He had to leave something of the Fiesta. And he wrote: "... all of a sudden people started coming down the street. They ran close. Passed and disappeared into the arena, then behind them other men ran faster, then came a few islanders who really ran. Behind them there was a small free space, then the bulls galloping, rolling the horns. Everything was out of sight around the corner. A man fell and was pulled apart, remained not moving. But the bulls went on and ignoring him. All units ran. " Now, only now he was really exhausted. He picked up his hands, bones, the sheets of paper. He could not even remember how he ended up in front of the hotel La Perla. He asked for the 205 went up, vomited. Then he fell asleep. When he came down he was perfect, flawless in sky-blue shirt, and smiled. The bill, por favor. The clerk sighed, took note of the room, opened the register of customers. Your name, boy? Hemingway." Ernest Hemingway.

Vineide - Roberto Cipresso, Giovanni Negri

Prologue

Little Instructions' Use

This book is dedicated to those who at least once in their life asked themselves about the arcane mysteries of wine and the reasons why the 'man to make wine something unique and unrepeatable. Blood of God, Poetry of the Earth, Fire Divine, Celestial Nectar, Sweet Ambrosia and a hundred other ways in which men have christened the wine, are there to demonstrate the extraordinary power of the liquid. Wine rooms on the altar, is the voice of the oracle, create festivals, suggests miracles, inspired rituals, myths originated. No other drink in human history, none has ever had a stronger power, identity so unique, so vast influence. The milk is more nutritious, the juice of other fruits sweeter, the water more necessary and even indispensable to human life. But neither milk or juice, or water can remotely match the charm and the strength of wine. Why? Why intoxicates you say. Yet it is not. Even the intoxicating beer, rum stunned, stunned the Whiskey, Vodka, and a thousand other liquids drunk overshadows the man, without this becoming a landmark in the history of humanity, create poetry, music, and turn into the painting in statue and in God, in popular tradition and aristocratic culture. So here Vineide. For those who understand that the great mysteries of wine is nothing more than to be an extraordinary, faithful, embarrassing mirror stabbing of man and his desire not to be alone, to preserve and nurture passions, emotions, words, dreams, fantasies , loves, hopes. A mystery which therefore contains more mysteries. So many mysteries, which chains together form the powerful and fascinating mosaic that goes by the name of Wine. No, do not worry. To reveal the mysteries of wine, no need to book earnest. To tell, leave out, to entrust to the intelligence of the reader and tasting each mystery, there was no need to organize yet another one last oenological or Dotta Wine Guide. Vineide is a game. We hired a journalist - as every servant fearful, embarrassed as any ignorant, pandering like any landlord - and we sent through several centuries and many countries. His task was to interview the most intriguing historical figures - more or less actually lived among them far apart in character, temperament, experience, culture, passions, ambitions and feelings - taking them one and the same question: What is Mystery of Wine? You also to play Vineide. Discover the mysteries and characters teasing 's intuition and memory. And you also try to connect to each mystery a real wine, to follow and enjoy, here and now. Why this is Vineide. Mysteries, Celebrities narrative, Wines to be discovered eventually return to understand that each wine is part of us that we want and we will reflect, in a game of mirrors where the wine is the mirror of man, but just as surely is the 'man the mirror of the wine. Good reading, good tasting.